Intestinal intelligence is key to making good economic decisions
"Thinking with your guts" is not a simple expression, since there are several neurological and psychological processes that were believed to take place exclusively in our heads, but which actually originate in our intestines.
For a long time it was believed that the intellect was the ability, housed in the brain, to use reason to learn and know. Hence the importance post industrial revolution of reason, the scientific method, the hypothetical-deductive, and other scientific herbs. But now, XXI century, we know that our digestive system is also key to our reasoning and our behavior, but of course ... not being at all our intestines calculating and logical-deductive. It is the so-called second brain, or brain of the bowels, and has an important influence on our economic decisions.
The second brain is composed of about 500 million neurons prowling the digestive system, which represents five times the number of neurons found in the spinal cord. Its main function is to regulate the motility of the intestine, but also to influence our perceptions, our sensations, our reasoning, and above all ... our decisions.
This organ is full of serotonin (the chemical that regulates our mood), much more than the brain of the head. Approximately 80% of this neurotransmitter is produced and found in the intestine.
Therefore, many studies today study the correlation between the health of the intestine, which depends on good bacteria, with mental health, because bacteria also interact with the central nervous system, that is, the brain of the head.
The first brain
It is the best known (of the head), and is composed of neurons and glial cells, in the form of networks, communicated thanks to neurotransmitters. The more complex neurological functions such as learning, memory, economic decision making, among others, depend on the ability of these cells to form fortified neural networks.
The second brain
It is formed mainly by the neurons of the walls of the intestinal tract, can operate autonomously and usually communicates with the first brain through the parasympathetic nervous system (the vagus nerve connects the intestine with the brain of the head) and the sympathetic system (the prevertebral ganglia).
In something that is important, the communication between both brains is completely bidirectional: the first brain influences the functioning of the intestine, but also the neurons that make up the second brain influence the functioning of the first. These bowel-brain signals are a powerful influence on emotions and behavior, especially in response to disturbing or threatening stimuli and events.
Prepare our second brain to make better economic decisions
At this stage of the 21st century, science is clear that economic decisions, to a great extent, are predefined goods before they reach consciousness, influenced notably by the limbic system (the center of the emotions of the first brain), and the intestines (the second brain).
People before the supermarket gondola, investors in the stock market, politicians with macroeconomics, and absolutely all human beings who make some kind of decision are notably influenced by unconscious mechanisms located both in the limbic system and in the brain of the intestines, being key to what we finally end up deciding with our scarce resources, be it money or time.
In this way, it is necessary to be at peace with our intestines, not sending signs of stress, for which experts recommend performing meditation or yoga to reduce the levels of cortisol, the stress hormone that directly affects our digestive system.
Another factor to consider about intestinal intelligence is that the intestine is the habitat of thousands of bacteria: a way of life that forms its own ecosystem in this long organ. Taking that into account, it is important to respect our biological clock (circadian cycle), because if we alter them we will also be altering the life of the bacteria and their work in the intestine, and, therefore, also our humors and our decisions.
In that sense, specialists recommend eating many probiotic foods - microorganisms good for the body, such as soups, yogurt, certain breads and fermented foods. Probiotics regenerate the intestinal flora, or what is the same, balance the ecosystem of bacteria in your digestive system.
In this way, good habits such as meditating, sleeping as necessary, eating well, generate healthier people, but also more intelligent to manage their economy, their money and their cost-benefit calculations.
Author: Sebastian Laza
Sebastián Laza is an argentine economist, specialized in the interrelation between Cognitive Neuroscience and Economics. He has published a book about this field: NEUROECONOMICS, THE DISRUPTIVE PATH
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